Technological products are not just physical objects, they are social objects. They perform some functions not solely on the basis of their functional physical properties but on the basis of the social functions assigned to them in a way similar to Searle’s Declarations. These social functions are not only specifications of how to use a technological device but contain certain moral percepts regarding the use of the respective device. My paper will focus on the moral values embedded in technology, their assessment, evaluation and modification, and will argue for the necessity of an ethical design of technologies.
The ethical norms embedded in technology are the basis for the appropriation of technological devices as well as for the further developments of technological practices. One of the ethical challenges in this respect is to develop a critical approach that would reveal the social preconceptions embedded into technological design.
While a technological object can have many functions only some of them come to be stabilized as social practices. The stabilization process is due part to the designers of technology, part to the users who develop new practices in unforeseen ways. The construction and ethical evaluation of realistic scenarios regarding the development of technological practices should be an important part of the design precesses. This kind of evaluation should take into account that a technological practice is inserted in a wider field of practices that modify and are modified by the new practice.
Furthermore, the postphenomenological analysis of technology shows that technological devices are not just instruments employed in human actions but they mediate the relation between humans and their world. This mediation raises its own ethical issues because technological characteristics modify human purposes. In this respect, ethical evaluation has two components: an internal one, that assesses mediation and inquires into the modifications brought about by the use of a specific device, and an external one, the traditional ethical perspective that inquires into the morality of human actions that employ artifacts.
The triad of ethical issues presented above (social preconceptions, stabilization of practices and the mediating role of artifacts) requires a different approach to the ethics of technology in which technological devices should be ethically designed i.e. the designer should create not only technical functions but also the material premises for ethical use of the device.
Niciun comentariu:
Trimiteți un comentariu